Monday, October 10, 2011

Bryan Fischer goes After Romney at the Values Voter Summit

From Jeremy Hooper at Good As You.

Bryan Fischer, the so-called "Value Voters Summit" speaker who GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney called out in his own VVS speech, wants to make something perfectly clear. That is: Even though most mainstream media reports are pitting the current controversy as being between evangelicals and Romney's Mormon faith, for central figure Fischer (who spoke immediately after Romney at the summit), the war of words is much more about gays and their rights than it about Joseph Smith or Temple Garments.
Fischer writes:

But my main disagreement with Mitt is this, and this is what I told every member of the media who interviewed me: my problem with Mitt is not that he’s Mormon, it’s that he’s not Mormon enough. In fact, that is all I’ve ever said about Romney’s Mormon faith.
...
The Mormon church has always been strongly pro-marriage, yet Gov. Romney imposed same-sex marriage on Massachusetts and the United States by executive fiat in 2004.

The sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage are the two absolute non-negotiables. That Mitt suddenly discovered these values at the same time he decided he wanted to be the next Republican presidential candidates smacks of a political conversion that is more about convenience than conviction.

In fact, I think the main reason Mitt Romney tried to kneecap me on Saturday is that I have been unswerving in pointing out he imposed same-sex marriage on Massachusetts by executive fiat.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in the fall of 2003 that the state’s existing natural marriage law - which outlawed same-sex marriage - was unconstitutional. The court, in a nod to the separation of powers, urged the General Assembly to write a new law, since that’s not the role of the judiciary, and gave it 180 days.

The General Assembly did precisely nothing. In fact, same-sex marriage is still illegal in Massachusetts. It is against the law, because the law has never been changed. You could look it up.

But Gov. Romney, in his craven capitulation to homosexual activists, was not about to be deterred. He plunged ahead and “legalized” same-sex marriage in a burst of executive activism and tyranny.

He ordered town clerks in the spring of 2004 to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples or get fired. Massachusetts state law still to this day directs town clerks to only issue marriage licenses that are “authorized by the laws of the commonwealth.” So Romney was ordering them to break the state law or lose their jobs, a gross abuse of power.

There’s a rule in politics: you never punch down; you only punch up. You never attack someone who has less power than you. Yet Mitt Romney came after me, someone with a minor national profile and no political power whatsoever.

Why did he punch down by going after me? Because I’m saying something he does not want Republican voters to know: America has same-sex marriage because of Mitt Romney.

In saying this, Fischer actually helps our cause, highlighting a major problem with how LGBT matters are commonly treated. Here we have a man whose organization, the American Family Association, co-hosted this silly Values Voters Summit. A man who got to speak right after someone who could become our next President. A man who used that plum speaking gig to give one of the most insanely hostile speeches imaginable, complete with a call for the next President to declare homosexuality a public health hazard. A man whose extremism (along with that of Pastor Robert Jeffress) led said candidate to publicly renounce him. And yet still, most every single report I'm seeing is making this current war-within all about whether or not figures like Jeffress and Fischer consider Mormonism to be a "cult" and not about what Fischer himself is flat-out saying is the real issue. Adding insult to injury, I'm still seeing far to many people paint Fischer as nothing more than a mere conservative voice, which is just plain negligent at this point. All leading to the major question here, which is: Why do LGBT issues get so much focus in some ways yet so much of a pass in another?!
When people like Bryan Fischer say insane things about LGBT people: BELIEVE THEM! This person not only got to speak at this same conference as the leading GOP presidential contenders, but the organization that gives him a paycheck was invited to co-host the damn thing (along with the Family Research Council). Fischer highlights that last point himself:

So there is no debate here. Fischer says his Romney fight is all about same-sex marriage, he takes responsibility for getting Romney to the summit in the first place, and he thinks the candidate was wrong to "insult" him in the way that he did. There's the story, which is inextricably connected to the Family Research Council, the Romney campaign, the crowd that gave Fischer a standing ovation, and the marriage fight in this country. We must demand it get reported in this way!